Mining cryptocurrencies is expensive. One hacker passed the cost on to NAS users.

A hacker generated digital coins worth more than $620,000 by hijacking a popular type of Internet-connected storage device from Synology, security researchers said.

The incident, which was documented in a research report published Tuesday by Dell SecureWorks, is only the latest hack to steal other people's computing resources to perform the computationally intense process of digital currency mining. The cryptographic operations behind the process often draw large amounts of power and produce lots of heat. People looking to acquire a large war chest of digital coins typically must pour large amounts of money and effort into the endeavor. One way malicious actors get by this requirement is by compromising large numbers of devices operated by other people. The devices then perform the work at the expense of the unsuspecting end users and pass on the proceeds to the attacker.

"To date, this incident is the single most profitable, illegitimate mining operation," SecureWorks researcher Pat Litke wrote. "This conclusion is based in part on prior investigations and research done by the Counter Threat Unit, as well as further searching on the Internet. As cryptocurrencies continue to gain momentum, their popularity as a target for various malware will continue to rise (as can be seen here, in figure 1)."

The open-source software added to hacked Synology devices was called CPUMiner. It was specially compiled to run on DiskStation Manager, a version of Linux for network devices. By examining the configuration settings, SecureWorks researchers were able to find the public key corresponding to the attacker's Dogecoin wallet. Based on that detail and several Web searches, they concluded the attacker is of German descent and was able to mine more than 500 million Dogecoins, with a face value of $620,496.

The incident is a potent reminder why it's important to install security updates on all Internet-connected devices. Synology users can find more information here on how to patch their devices.

Story updated to add "and several Web searches" to the second-to-last paragraph.

Promoted Comments

I find it fascinating that today we live in a world where computing (independent form hardware) is now a resource that can be bought, sold, stolen, etc. just like a physical resource. Cryptocurrencies have, if nothing else, made stealing computing a viable thing to do.

Ingenious and not harmful to his victims. I can live with hackers like this. We should create more fake currencies for these guys to keep themselves busy with.

Really? What else did they do to the NAS while they were in there? Or what if someone else discovered their back door and got in for purposes other than mining?

If anyone ever for any reason gains access to your computer or any other IP enabled device used to store your files, that's an auto-wipe-and-reload no questions asked.

Say you catch a burglar in your front hall and they say something like oh sorry old chap I was just about to burglar you but I didn't make it past the front hall no worries I'll be going now all your stuff is still safe in the house. Would you trust that statement?